Zero down: Lakepoint secures 100% financing for a Kelowna advisory firm

A professional services firm in the Okanagan came to us with a goal plenty of growing businesses share: stop paying someone else's mortgage and start building equity of their own. The firm, a general business advisory practice based in Kelowna, had found an office property it wanted to buy and occupy. The challenge was capital. As a relatively young company, only about three years into its operating history, it would much rather keep cash working inside the business than lock a large down payment into real estate.

Full, no money down financing on commercial property is rare, and when a bank does offer it, the offer is usually reserved for what lenders call "Tier 1" professionals. That is a narrow club, mostly doctors, dentists, veterinarians and a few similar licensed fields whose income lenders view as exceptionally stable. Our client did not fit that mould. As a general business advisor rather than a licensed health professional, the firm sat outside the recognized categories that normally unlock this kind of treatment. Its short operating history gave lenders even less to lean on.

So we built the case ourselves. We prepared a detailed Request for Financing that told the firm's story the way a credit committee needs to hear it: the strength of its earnings, the quality of its client relationships, and the simple logic of owning rather than renting. Then we took that package into our lender network and ran a competitive process, looking for a lender willing to underwrite the business in front of them instead of the label on the application.

A chartered bank stepped up, and the terms did the talking:

100% financing, nothing down: The bank advanced a $1,100,000 term loan to purchase the property at full value, alongside a separate $70,000 term loan covering 100% of the planned renovation costs. Our client bought and improved a new office without writing a down payment cheque.

Capital kept in the business: Conventional terms would typically have required 15% to 25% down. On a purchase this size, that is somewhere in the range of $120,000 to $300,000 in cash that stayed inside the business rather than going to the bank. Even after accounting for Lakepoint's engagement fee, the firm came out comfortably ahead.

A rate that beat its leverage: Higher leverage almost always carries a pricing premium, yet our client locked in a competitive rate of Prime + 0.69%. Seeing pricing that sharp on a no money down deal is a genuinely good outcome.

Breathing room to renovate: Because the office needed work before move-in, we secured six months of interest-only payments at the start of the term. That gave the firm time to finish renovations without carrying full principal and interest on a space it could not yet fully use.

The net result is a growing advisory firm that now owns its office, kept its reserves intact, and did it on terms very close to what a Tier 1 professional would happily sign.

If your business does not fit neatly inside a lender's checklist, that is often exactly where we do our best work. The category on the application matters far less than the strength of the story behind it, and if you have a story worth telling a bank, we would be glad to help you tell it.